Beautiful gun with a neat history.It’s priceless.
The First .357 Combat Magnum
- Thread starter Doc44
- Start date
I am honored just to see it.Good to know a national treasure is in good hands.
Bill:
A few questions about the known history of the gun (I know you've probably answered these questions before, and I couldn't lay my hands on the 2013 Journal quickly):
Did the factory commission AAW to engrave the gun? If so, I imagine that after AAW engraved it, the gun was returned to the factory?
Do we know why it was not presented to President Kennedy (if it was engraved in 1962 and Kennedy died in November 1963)?
Did Bill Orr purchase the gun directly from the factory? If not, what do the factory records show when and where it shipped?
Thanks again for sharing that treasure!
A few questions about the known history of the gun (I know you've probably answered these questions before, and I couldn't lay my hands on the 2013 Journal quickly):
Did the factory commission AAW to engrave the gun? If so, I imagine that after AAW engraved it, the gun was returned to the factory?
Do we know why it was not presented to President Kennedy (if it was engraved in 1962 and Kennedy died in November 1963)?
Did Bill Orr purchase the gun directly from the factory? If not, what do the factory records show when and where it shipped?
Thanks again for sharing that treasure!
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OP
Engraving of the Combat Magnum by Alvin White was commissioned by S&W through Walter Sanborn, Assistant Sales Manager. It has never been stated why the presentation was not made to President Kennedy. I can only speculate that Kennedy's schedule never allowed time for the presentation to take place. Bill Orr, owner of GT Distributors, a police supply company, had many connections at S&W and purchased the revolver directly from the factory. I don't know when the purchase took place, but the factory letter on this revolver is dated July 13, 1976.
Bill
Bill
Thank you!
Thanks for posting that.
If memory is working properly I saw that revolver in KC 2013. It's even
more stunning in person.
-don
more stunning in person.
-don
OP
Don...You did, as I presented a display of .357 Combat Magnums at the annual meeting in KC in 2013. K260003 was the centerpiece.
Bill
Bill
bill1917
Member
Are they saying this was the FIRST combat magnum? I believe I read that the first was K 260001 and was presented to Bill Jordan who encouraged S&W to make a K frame 357.
IIRC that's in the SCS&W 4th Ed.
That aside quite the gun!!!!!!!!!
Cuban missile Crisis, Oct 1962, probably took priority on JFK's schedule!
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OP
.357 Combat Magnum, K260003, was manufactured on December 15, 1955. It was given to Walter Sanborn, S&W Assistant Sales Manager, to develop promotional material and kept in the factory collection. .357 Combat Magnum, K260001, with the lowest serial number, was completed on January 3, 1956 and shipped to Bill Jordan on January 5, 1956. It was the second gun shipped as K260006 was shipped on January 3, 1956 to General George Van Orden, Evaluators Ltd., Quantico, VA to be used in tests by the U. S. Marine Equipment Board.
K260001 was the third gun manufactured and the second one shipped.
Bill
K260001 was the third gun manufactured and the second one shipped.
Bill
Proving once again that S&W never shipped in serially numerical order...
...Ben
OP
History of S&W by Roy Jinks, page 182..."On December 15, 1955, the first production medium-frame Magnum was completed; it was serial numbered K260003. When the lowest serial numbered gun in the first production run (K260001) was complete, it was forwarded to Bill Jordan".
Bill
Bill
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